


i am yours, as you are mine

by sasuskies



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26270029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasuskies/pseuds/sasuskies
Summary: “boar,” he repeats, even if he knows sakura is more than capable of following without him saying. “horse, then tiger.”  — the gokakyu no jutsu was created by the uchiha clan.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 20
Kudos: 62





	i am yours, as you are mine

sasuke shows sakura how to mold the fires of a katon in the mist-drenched stage of the land of waves. he teaches her the way his father had taught him, the way his father had been taught by his. he teaches her the way his mother had been taught by her great-aunt when she was only nine, in the lake at the heart of the uchiha district. he teaches her a whole culture, compressed in a coming of age ceremony; a rite of passage, cultivated by flames. he gives her his entire clan’s history that burns as bright as the embers fanned by the uchiha crest, as absolute as the ash they leave behind. 

“oh,” is what she says. an oh of daunt, or perhaps an oh of disappointment, because maybe she does not feel the same way she did about him when they were sixteen. after all, she is sakura — intelligent to a fault, and ever so patient. but patience is a commodity that runs out, and sooner or later the head overtakes the heart — and no, the heart does not pump love, it pumps generous, egregious things such as _pity_. the word leaves a bitter taste in sasuke’s tongue —

“will you —” she takes a breath, “will you show me again?” sakura, well, she was not paying attention, and she is acutely aware that her heart is beating fast beneath the layers of her travelling cloak. maybe if her hands have a habit of being clammy, they would be so inside her gloves. but they are not. everything that is supposed to manifest shock and fear, and sincere, sincere _honor_ is repressed inside her body, just like she has trained it to be as a medic. so instead, her brain flies off at a frightening speed, and she is left with the simple word of _oh_.

“yes,” he says, and her heart _soars._ sasuke is not used to giving, she knows. it is evident in the pink of his ears and the way his eyes are suddenly so defiant as they look at her, as if they are challenging her to a fight. why would she fight him when he is offering her something so intimate? she does not expect a place in his heart. she does not. but he gives her his arm to hold when the cliff is steep, he gives her his ear when she is musing about how nice it would be to have a hospital to help children, he gives her stories of interdimensional travel and helps her trace it back to the world of reason: of hows and specifics and parameters and calculations. and isn’t that — isn’t that better? 

he turns to face the sea once again. “boar,” he repeats, even if he knows sakura is more than capable of following without him saying. “horse, then tiger.” he takes a deep breath, ammases chakra to his diaphragm, and expels it through the gates of his mouth. it is not his biggest, and he knows he can go twice, thrice the size. he is only teaching after all. there is no father to impress, or older brother to surpass. sakura has seen him in his worst, and if there is anyone in the world, living or dead, he can show this to, it is her. 

“pool your chakra underneath your chest,” he instructs, and she watches him with wide eyes. eager eyes. “change the nature once it reaches your throat.”

and so she does. she creates a ball roughly the same size as his, just as hot, as it boils the surface of the water lapping at the dock. the sea mirrors the fire, and everything becomes a blaze of red, gold, blue. it’s nothing she’s ever felt before. the nature of water is much gentler, and she’s never tried meddling in elements outside earth and the former. this is something completely new, uncharted territory she is stepping in in. it’s painful. it’s exhilarating.

sasuke thinks, not for the first time, that his companion is a beautiful woman. she wields her fire like she was born to do it. it is mesmerizing to see her fit in places that cradle him like home, places he has never shared before. it should not come as a surprise anymore, really, because _of course._ it’s her. 

“was that correct, sasuke-kun?”

he nods, and there is something indecipherable in his eyes. something akin to adoration. she would not be too presumptuous to believe that it is for her. still, her chest burns. from the fire. from something more. she smiles, then comes to face him. “it’s different,” she remarks. “ryoko-san is a fire type from the village, she — she uses horse and tiger, but not boar. why is that?”

“because,” he starts. “this is the way i was taught. it is… different.” the uchiha have a different way of doing things, father used to say. a harder way. their fire burns brighter. _what he taught you, sasuke-chan,_ said mother, _is not just a jutsu. it is our history. one day you will pass it on, and with it is the uchiha._ boar, horse, tiger. “boar makes the flame burn brighter. more whole. it is custom,” he says. “for uchiha.”

sakura’s mouth parts ever so slightly, and he sees a burn at the tip of her tongue. _a harder way_. he will not fault her if she does not take it, but he offers it up anyhow. he places it on the table, along with the rest of his life. then she states, “i will try again.”

it is unspoken, the acceptance. sakura hopes he knows. knows that she would gladly shoulder his burden with him. that she will try her best to live up to all the people she cannot not meet who shares his name. he does not talk about his family very often. she guesses he does not remember much about them either, but he shows her how they mold chakra, techniques of old that has remained indifferent to alterations. he shows her the things he has not forgotten. sakura knows about how jutsu that is true to its origin can be something very powerful. it is the same way years of history has made sasuke the force that he is. 

after, sakura presses a hand to his lips, hovering ever so slightly, the cool wind of her healing coursing through the blisters that have been beginning to form at the edges of his mouth. the skin enveloping it is coarser, his lips thinner, more defined than anyone else’s she’s ever seen. the fire release is an unkind element; it does not discriminate between user and target. it burns everything that is in its path. when sakura has the time to read books for the heart that remains ever so tender, she remembers sasuke in the spaces between the character that spells out fire. because fire loves innocence most of all, and sasuke — her sasuke — has burns in hands and hard lines beside his mouth from fueling it for far too long. 

“sasuke-kun,” she says, though there are plenty of things she has not. she knows he is the same. “thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> first line heavily inspired by hyperphonic's [ closure ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15916131), an absolute masterpiece. 
> 
> "I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong." is a line from lemony snicket. dont ask me how sakura got to read it. i dont know. she's simply <3 different <3\. her mind transcends time.


End file.
